Utility Fog

Sunday, 11th of September, 2011

Tonight, new highlights from Origamibiro and Plaid, and some great remixes of Telafonica...
LISTEN AGAIN as usual via the link at the bottom, or the podcast, or FBi on Demand...

I wasn't going to draw attention to the date at all tonight, but then Busdriver happened to post the excellent MC Paul Barman track on Facebook this evening, and it seemed like an appropriate start of the show.
Sticking with the hip-hop, we heard Sole at his polemic best, pressing philosopher Slavoj Zizek into service "collaborating" on this track.
The aforementioned Busdriver has formed a new project with Nocando as Flash Bang Grenada, and their new album is underground hip-hop at its finest. Regular collaborator Open Mike Eagle appears here.

The new Sole & the SkyRider Band is full of classic, catchy numbers, of which "We Will Not Be Moved" is a highlight. Not least of my motivations in playing it was so that I could showcase a couple of older SkyRider tunes — not the very oldest, but from 2008's self-titled album, with some obvious contributions from William Ryan Fritch (whose string presence on the Sole track is also very strong), and then a great beat-oriented track from last year's AUX SEND mixtape.

Telafonica are taking an interesting approach with their latest recording: a whole slew of remix releases will come out before the actual album and the original tracks can be heard. Viceroy is first cab off the rank, and the remixes are superlative. Option Command aka Broken Chip is in his wonky beats mode, as seen also on his recent EP (from which we heard a cut), while Scissor Lock turns in almost 10 minutes of dark, shuddering drone.

Deep and dark also is The Haxan Cloak, who we heard a couple of weeks ago. His rumbling cello mixes in perfectly with the percussion, electronics and drones. This is a hugely impressive record.
Another hugely impressive record in the drone vein comes from Canadian Damian Valles. The drones here are fleshed out with full arrangements and sometimes song structures, in a fashion which really feels like the future of this drone/sound art genre.

Sydney's Kate Carr runs the Flaming Pines label, and has put out a couple of geography/weather inspired compilations recently, along with her own EP here. Beautifully recorded ambient guitar noise, field recordings and other sounds come together over 5 tracks. And from the Burning Palms compilation we have Darren McClure, who I don't believe has ever visited the beach being evoked on the record, rather beautifully describes the "Figure 8" pond in music.

It's been a while since we've heard from Origamibiro. As a solo act, Tom Hill (one half of idm duo Wauvenfold) put out a beautiful folktronic album in 2007. It's my kind of folktronica - digital cut-ups and treatments of acoustic instruments. Now a duo (or trio with visuals), they're releasing a stunning new album, and to preview it, a remix EP which you can download for free. We heard two remixes of "Quad Time", one from the offthesky-related Juxta Phona and another from the fabulous Leafcutter John.

The delicate harpsichord-like sounds introducing the first track on Plaid’s new album follow on rather nicely from the preceding folktronica. But it's vintage Plaid, this album, all the way through: perfect melodies, surprising harmonic progressions, bouncy beats and occasional weird time signatures.

A very electronic tune from the new HTRK followed, plus a reminder of the greatness of their previous album — apathetic yet dejected vocals, production that takes the best of post-punk into the current day.

Next, two tracks from Finnish Salli Lunn, Danish indie-metal band who've just released a most excellent remix disc, with influences from industrial and psychedelic music as well as electronica. Scott Solter goes pretty hard with his, in keeping with the source material. More next week! Very fine stuff, originals and remixes.

I did intend last week to play some Grandaddy, but ran out of time, so here we are this week — celebrating the Deluxe edition of their 2000 opus The Sophtware Slump, sprawling indie Americana with electronics and studio nonsense. The opening track is a recognized classic, sometimes recalling Pink Floyd, often (as Grandaddy do) recalling The Flaming Lips or Mercury Rev... On EP track "Our Dying Brains", Jason Lytle recalls creating the vocal trickery through studio experimentation, no Pro Tools or anything being available — he recorded multiple vocal takes, and dropped in different versions throughout the chorus, to memorable robotic effect.

Finally, it can't be a UFog at the moment without Animals on Wheels. He's up to number 7 of his 8 EPs in 8 Weeks, this one including some jazzy beats and tasteful piano. The whole thing is going to add up to something pretty damn impressive.

MC Paul Barman - Happy September 11th [download here]
Sole - Living In The End Times (w/ Slavoj Zizek) [free download from Soleone]
Flash Bang Grenada (Busdriver & Nocando) - In A Perfect World (feat. Open Mike Eagle, prod Mono/Poly) [Hellfyre Club]
Sole & the SkyRider Band - We Will Not Be Moved (feat. Ceschi & Noah23) [Fake Four/Equinox Records]
SkyRider - SkyRider's Theme [self-released]
SkyRider - aux send 1a [self-released]
Telafonica - Viceroy (Option Command version) [available from Bandcamp]
Option Command - Polybell Strategy [King Deluxe]
Telafonica - Viceroy (Scissor Lock version) [available from Bandcamp]
The Haxan Cloak - Burning Torches of Despair [Aurora Borealis]
Damian Valles - Bones Made Out Of Bone [Drifting Falling]
The Haxan Cloak - The Growing [Aurora Borealis]
Damian Valles - Calavera [Drifting Falling]
Kate Carr - Saturday night [Flaming Pines]
Darren McClure - Figure 8 [Flaming Pines]
Kate Carr - A choir full of longing [Flaming Pines]
Origamibiro - Dismantle Piece [Denizen/Abandon Building Recordings]
Origamibiro - Quad Time (Juxta Phona Remix) [Denizen/Abandon Building Recordings] {free download remix EP}
Origamibiro - Quad Time (Leafcutter John Remix) [Denizen/Abandon Building Recordings] {free download remix EP}
Origamibiro - Nootaikok [Denizen/Abandon Building Recordings]
Plaid - missing [Warp]
Plaid - Little People [Warp]
Plaid - eye robot [Warp]
HTRK - Work That Body [BLAST First (petite)/Ghostly/Mistletone]
HTRK - Fascinator [BLAST First (petite)]
Salli Lunn - Mirror Girl (Scott Solter remix) [Hidden Shoal]
Salli Lunn - The Frame of Reference [Hidden Shoal]
Grandaddy - He's Simple, He's Dumb, He's The Pilot [Mercury/Universal]
Grandaddy - Our Dying Brains [Mercury/Universal]
Animals on Wheels - Formality [free download from Animals on Wheels]

Listen again — ~ 159MB

Comments are closed.